Madagascar part 1---Nosy Be

I know I've been back in Singapore for a while and haven't updated my blog, but I couldn't upload any pictures on blogger and figured you guys would rather get the pics...

I had an awesome summer! I had been waiting for this trip for a long time. Some people think seven weeks is too long to visit a single country, but quite honestly, I didn't even get to see everything Madagascar had to offer. Need to locate the country? Here you go:

Want to figure out the itinerary as you read on?

To start off smoothly, I started with a week of diving in Nosy Be (North-West). The diving didn't compare to what we can see in South-East Asia, but it was still good. I got to see my first school of sharks (10 of them swimming together), my first eagle rays and a small manta. I saw nudibranches I had never seen before. Most of the dives had an average depth of 25 meters, so most of these dives were shorter than what I'm used to, with no shallow reef to prolong the dive. Too bad! You guys have seen so many of my dive pictures, I figured I wouldn't post any on this trip.

I had changed money at the airport, but I needed to buy a ticket out of Nosy Be. I went to the ATM, but they didn't accept my ATM card or my credit card (only advances on a Visa were possible). I started freaking out and went back to the hotel. I met other tourists that told me that Air Mad (nice nick-name, no?) took the master card. When I turned up there, they said that their office didn't take MC and they were the only ticketing office on Nosy Be (an island, by the way). Crap! I had enough money to fly back to Tana (the capital, Antananarivo, is shortened to Tana), but I didn't like travelling with no pocket money... Oh well, this was just the beginning of my money nightmare...

As I was eating lunch by the beach when I saw these two ladies walking by. I rushed out of the restaurant to take this picture.

This is actually the first of many chameleons I saw during my trip. I was so keen on finding one. When I asked my dive guide where I could catch a glimps at this cute creature, she said: "you're welcome to walk around my garden; there are plenty of those walking around!" I thought I'd have to work a lot more to find them...